I nominate this as the official vine of the jackals: It is called a “bleeding heart” vine, yet it’s tough and prickly as hell:
We’re watching the Saints vs. Panthers (Geaux Saints!) and contemplating dinner, which will be sole meunière, rice pilaf and sautéed Brussels sprouts. (Pro-tip: If weight loss is among your 2018 New Year’s resolutions, do NOT read Julia Child’s “My Life in France” memoir.)
Hope your evening is at least as pleasant! Open thread!
Carolina Dave
Keep Pounding Panthers.
Used to be a Saints fan prior to the Panthers creation. So winner is my team fore the rest of the playoffs
WaterGirl
Hey, Betty, I have one of those, but I obviously have to bring it indoors for the winter. The flowers on mine are white, though, with this interesting little set of 4 petals that are fire engine red. Love the color of yours, though!
lamh36
Happy Sunday BJ!!
Geaux Saints!!!
Yarrow
Apparently I caught the crud. I just ate some chocolate and can’t taste it properly. I guess the congestion is starting to take over. Will probably be Golden Globes for me, at least through Seth Myers’ intro. I don’t care that much about the awards.
WaterGirl
I am trying to watch the first episode of the X-Files for the season. I never watched when it was on years ago, but I did watch last year. I picked up what I could last year without knowing any of the backstory, but I could use some help if anyone knowledgable has a minute.
Basic questions:
I know we saw cigarette man last season, but I can’t remember much except that he is evil.
Scully and Mulder had a kid together, but they don’t know where he is, and I think he has something to do with aliens, but how is that possible if Scully and Mulder aren’t aliens?
I remember something about the cigarette man and a virus and Scully maybe having a cure, but I have no idea how she ended up unconscious and in the hospital. thanks
raven
My bride made lots of handbags in the shape of flowers and that was one of her favorites.
lamh36
Oh…so I watched The Greateast Showman. I’d give it a solid B+. It would be an A if not for the sugarcoating of the disgusting-ness that is PT Barnum. If not for that, it’d be stellar.
The music was catchy (it’s like the #1 Soundtrack on Itunes I think), the performances were great both lead actors Hugh Jackman (boy does that dude love his song and dance man gigs), Zach Efron & Zendaya, but the supporting cast of “misfits”.
If you can get past the bullshit “wholesomeness” of PT Barnum, and you like a good song and dance with great toe tapping pop hit like soundtracks…The Greatest Showman is def what you want to see!!!
My fav song “Rewrite the Stars”
Apparetly, Zendaya did ALOT of her own stunts!!
Other favs.. “This is Me” and “Never Enough”. If there was any movie soundtrack justice, “Never Enough” from #TheGreatestShowman would be as big as “Let It Go” from Frozen!!!
The entire soundtrack was ?? I might actually buy this soundtrack ya’ll! The last movie soundtrack I bought was Bridge Jones Diary 2
Litlebritdifrnt
Here in Jolly Old England DH is watching the Panthers (thanks to a Sky Sports subscription) go Panthers! We already had dinner, beef stew and dumplings with home made bread for dipping. Cold as hell here, hard to get bread to rise. Still not as cold as in some parts of the US. We are staying warm seeing as we follow the “warm the person not the place” philosophy. Having fun watching the clown show from across the pond, although DH is getting a little tired of the “how f*cking insane is Trump anyway?” questions from all the Brits he encounters in his daily life. His nightly pints in the pub after his workout at the gym are getting interesting to say the least :) Hope everyone over there is staying warm and sane.
Steeplejack
** DVR Alert **
Dunno if it’s national, but my main PBS station is starting Season 3 of Janet King at 8:00 p.m. EST tonight. It’s worth checking out: sort of a distant Aussie cousin of Law and Order, with local color and interesting looks at Australian society. Each eight-episode season tracks one big case (or related cases). In this season Janet King (formerly the equivalent of a district attorney) takes a position with a national commission looking at drug cases.
Season 1 was good, and now I have reminded myself that I need to binge Season 2 off my overstuffed DVR.
trollhattan
@Litlebritdifrnt:
Why thanks, I am warm. As to the other part….
Can well imagine being a Yank explaining Trump overseas is an unconquerable task.
Baud
Who Dat!
Mnemosyne
I overdid walking on my sore knee yesterday since I had various meetings and errands, so now I’m laying down with it elevated and should probably ice it again before my load of laundry is done. The physical therapy is helping a lot, but it got pretty stiff and a little atrophied while I was waiting for the PT approvals, so I’ll probably be on crutches for at least another couple of weeks. ?
I also need to do my planning for the week — I’m adding a paper planner back in to my routine since I have some specific goals I want to reach this year (especially with writing) and electronic calendars don’t do that nearly as well.
raven
These are wedding ring pillows.
WaterGirl
@lamh36: I wanted to catch you in a thread at some point, maybe this is a good time? I know you like the hallmark movie. I self-medicated with silly christmas movies on the hallmark channel. I couldn’t help but notice that all the main characters were lily white, except they always had that one black friend who was very wise.
I guess everything else is forulaic so I guess it shouldn’t be surprising that that was, too, but damn, this was 2017 and they can surely do better than that!
It got kind of funny after a while: snow, check. impromptu snowball fight, check. one of the two soon-to-be lovers has an adorable youngish child, check. baking cookies, check. everyone must have a tree, check. oh my god, they are turning the lights on the tree (!) check. you have to decorate your house, check.
geg6
I’ll be making Debi Mazar’s recipe for spaghetti with shrimp and lemons. The temperature has moderated somewhat and I’m over comfort food and craving something a bit different. Golden Globes will be on my tube tonight. I like Seth Myers and I’m guessing we’ll have some barnburner speeches.
Litlebritdifrnt
@WaterGirl: I watched the show religiously when it was on in the US until I lost interest when Mulder left. From what I remember Scully was at one point abducted and implanted with a chip while the aliens had her. She removed the chip but the aliens always had plans for her for “breeding”. As far as I can remember Mulder and Scully did have sex and she got pregnant but they could never be sure if the child was a result of that or of alien interference. Anyhoo, the aliens took the child (like they did Mulder’s sister). The CSM (cig smoking man) is a force of evil, he is enabling the alien influence over the US government. I have not yet seen the new episode because it doesn’t air here until Jan 10 (I have the whole series set to record). I can’t wait.
raven
@WaterGirl: I sold em.
WaterGirl
@Steeplejack: I just did a search with Tivo and the drama comes up, but it says there are no episodes available over the next two weeks. So maybe it’s not national? Looks interesting, though.
lamh36
@WaterGirl: Scully gave William up for adoption to protect him. She told the agent to not even tell her who adopted him.
The Cigarette Man, is def a big bad shadowy gov’t guy…
lamh36
Not watching, just following along on twitter, but Even without Will & Grace, I would GENUINELY love Debra Messing for when she called out Susan Sarandon on her shit!!!
Dont’ mess with Grace Adler!!!
ETA: Here’s the video:
debbie
@raven:
Your bride made them? They’re very pretty! Does she do them (and the handbags) as a business?
WaterGirl
@raven: Beautiful!
Seems like you made the best choice on the upcoming game. But sometimes it sucks to be a grown-up, doesn’t it? I vividly recall the first time I had to take some yucky-tasting medicine when I went away to college, and it was kind of shocking to realize that I was gonna have to make myself take it, there was no mom around to make me.
Second memory along that line was when i had tickets to a concert about 2 hours away – and the state police were telling everyone to stay off the roads because it wasn’t safe and people were dying when they were getting stuck on the highway. I struggled a lot with that decision, but eventually decided to skip the concert. I made the right choice, but it was disappointing.
debbie
I’m working my way through the 7th season of Game of Thrones. Jesus, that was some battle!
p.a.
I’ve changed my eating habits over the last 2 years, and recently re-watched Eat Drink Man Woman. The kitchen/food scenes had me moaning like the flyers in the briefing scene in Catch 22.
debbie
@lamh36:
If there’s a Deep State, Cigarette Man is it.
amygdala
@WaterGirl: It’s complicated. XFiles eps generally come in two flavors: mythology episodes, which get at the questions you ask and can be hard to grok without having watched from the beginning, and “monster of the week,” which usually work as stand-alones.
Cigarette-Smoking Man is indeed evil, a member of the Syndicate, which has been doing all sorts of awful things, in secret, to people (and aliens) all over the planet since Roswell, if not before. Extraterrestrials, their DNA, and hideous pathogens are involved.
Both Mulder and Scully have a tendency to wind up in the hospital inexplicably comatose, convulsing, or otherwise extremely ill. I’m guessing we’ll find out more in the next ep or two what’s up this time.
Scully, the skeptic, was abducted and when she was returned, had unexplained illnesses, including cancer and sterility, with evidence of alien DNA (being a scientist, she sequenced it herself). Somewhat mysteriously, she became pregnant. The Mulder angle has in part to do with the UST (unresolved sexual tension) between the characters as well as the pro- and anti-[relation]shippers in the fandom. They gave William up for adoption, to protect him from the myriad bad guys, including the Syndicate, who wanted their experiment back.
If you don’t mind a bit of reading, this is a reasonable synopsis of the mythology, without spoilers for this season that I was able to see.
Amongst the jackals, PaulW is an XPhile (and a shipper), and I wouldn’t be surprised if there are others.
David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch
@Baud: Who?! Who?! (video)
Yarrow
@WaterGirl: For some reason the Hallmark Channel/Lifetime Channel holiday movies became a thing this year. SNL did a spoof. The two guys who do a fake “At the Movies” bit on The Opposition with Jordan Klepper did a really funny bit on it. (Link. That part starts at 2:57) I don’t know why they broke through this year as a thing but it did.
lamh36
@WaterGirl: The movies are DEF cookie cutter. And I used to watch them more than I used to. Lately though, I’ve found that I’m no longer interested. I don’t watch them as religiously as I used to.
Where I used to likely watch one every weekend, now I’ve only seen maybe 4 of the new movies. The diversity if one of the reasons, but also, the repititveness of all of them does drag ALOT!
Emma
As if my life didn’t have enough stress already I managed to trip on the way to the garage to get laundry started and land on my semi-decent knee. Nothing broken or even twisted but the pain on those muscles run from knee to toe. Felt like crying until I saw the bleeding heart. One of my best memories of Scotland was walking down a country lane towards the ruins of the women’s monastery in Iona. It was a cool, wet day, and the air smelled like salt. The hedges separating the few houses from the ruins were made of bleeding hearts blooming gloriously. The vines were thick and tangled but the flowers were so dainty. I don’t know how they lasted in that weather.
raven
@debbie: No, sideline but she’s retiring in 6 months and the LOOKOUT!
Mnemosyne
Also, too, since I have to go back to a paper planner, I got all enthusiastic about buying my Florida nieces a couple of Happy Planners since they were massively on sale at Michael’s last week — here’s one of the ones I got. They seem to like them and it’s not like the Devil Woman can forbid them from being more organized for school. ?
Litlebritdifrnt
@lamh36:
Thanks for the correction on the baby thing. I had forgotten that bit :)
Dorothy A. Winsor (formerly Iowa Old Lady)
Yay! My short story “Borderlands” will appear in the November 2018 issue of FrostFire. That gives you all time to make space on your shelves
lamh36
@WaterGirl: I’ve actually found myself watching more Lifetime movies this season. In terms of diversity, Lifetime is def MILES ahead of Hallmark
mai naem mobile
I am wondering when Doc Martin is going to start again. It seems like it should have already started. They had a couple of new episodes of Call the Midwife and then the holidays interrupted that. Still not on tonight. I’ve been wathcong Monk in the background. I thought I had seen every episode. Apparently not. I love Monk.
Mnemosyne
@raven:
One of my aunts retired last year and just announced that she’s opening her own travel tour business. She had always led overseas tour groups for her junior college when she was a professor there, so this way she can keep traveling. We laughed when we opened her Christmas card and got a sales pitch, but it makes perfect sense. She was never going to retire and just play golf all day.
raven
@WaterGirl: I missed the Stones in the Assembly Hall in 69 for a fucking field trip. It was graded and the only thing I passed!
WaterGirl
@amygdala: thanks so much! Your comment tickled my memory about a couple of episodes from last season. I think we watched Scully sequence her DNA in an episode from last season, though I suppose that could have been a flashback. And I think we saw a young cigarette man covering up everything at Roswell in an episode from last season, maybe a flashback also.
Funny, I think Mulder might have been in the hospital last season, now that you mention it! That synopsis looks awesome – I’m not looking for the equivalent of a semester-long course in X-Files :-) so that looks like just the thing!
What’s a shipper?
lamh36
Ya know, it’s funny, I literally had a twiiter convo about Lifetime movies today.
before Hallmark and their cookie cutter romance movies…Lifetime movies were always the ones that you caught while channel surfing and you end up getting caught up in a movie like… “No One Would Tell” with Candace Cameron and Fred Savage!!!!
HE THREW HER BODY IN A LAKE!!!
I mean no Lifetime movie fan can forget, “Mother May I Sleep With Danger” with Tori Spelling?
WaterGirl
@Litlebritdifrnt: Wow, did not know Mulder ever left the show, but since I didn’t watch it, I guess there is no reason I would have known. How could there by a Scully with no Mulder?
Mulder’s sister got taken? (did she get returned?) And aliens took the child? I thought William was shipped off for safety. So much to learn!
oatler.
More points!
Sports go sports!
Mnemosyne
@Emma:
Ouch! I managed to further damage my already bad knee when I fell in October. Time for some RICE: rest, ice, elevation, compression. Take some ibuprofen or Aleve, too. Trying to tough out muscle pain only makes it heal more slowly, so take the NSAIDs and rest it for the rest of the day.
raven
@Mnemosyne: No problem for this girl! She’s worried about me if I retire but I think it’s a plot to keep the paycheck rolling! :)
amygdala
@WaterGirl: A shipper is someone who wanted Mulder and Scully to get involved romantically. XF creator Chris Carter had a ball tormenting the fandom over many seasons with will-they-or-won’t-they, thanks to the chemistry between GA and DD.
raven
@mai naem mobile: I thought Doc was done.
gene108
@lamh36:
Saw “ The Greatest Showman”. Knew it was a musical and not a biography type movie, so I was not expecting much historical accuracy.
Plus my niece is an extra in a couple of scenes ???
She got her 15 seconds* of fame. ?
* Don’t think it was actually 15 seconds of screen time, but she is super excited. Need to watch the DVD with her, so we can go frame by frame to pick her out.
raven
@oatler.: What is it that you do that is so compelling?
Steeplejack
@Betty Cracker:
New Year’s resolutions: We haven’t discussed those here yet, I don’t think. Maybe jackals don’t need resolutions. I’m usually opposed to them as being artificial and (often) unrealistic, but . . . I have to admit that lately I have been thinking about changes that I would like to make, and wondering about other things that I could do, in 2018 to get the stink of Trumpocalypse: Year 1 off me. I think most of us would agree that 2017 was no bueno and that we’d like 2018 to be different.
I’ve got to do something to discharge the enormous rage and frustration I feel every day, and I want to do something positive, not just fight the Trumpism (although that is important!). And it’s on a personal level, too. The whole Trump horror show has depressed me, distracted me and blurred my focus a bit, so there are things that I want to do purely for myself that I’m not doing.
“How can you selfishly think of doing x when the whole goddamn country is going up in flames?!”
“Okay, I won’t do x. What can I do to stop the country going up in flames?”
“Well, I don’t know, but you should be doing it!”
Thank you, critical inner voice.
I have decided that my two “causes” for the year are going to be voter registration and “literacy action” (for lack of a better term). I have been researching the possibilities around here and hope to get moving soon, now that the holidays are over.
I have some “personal” goals that I’m still hashing out. Maybe more on those later as my thoughts get clarified.
So I guess the tl;dr offered for discussion is not “resolutions” per se but what do you want to do or experience differently this year after the crazy roller-coaster ride of 2017?
Another Scott
@Mnemosyne: Slow and steady…
On the electronic calendar vs paper thing, I’ve been very happy with Pimlical for years and years. It’s essential for any Android phone I have, and the desktop version runs anywhere (written in Java). I also carry small paper notebooks for notetaking, but for reminders, tasks, etc., etc., I have to have my electronic gizmo.
Just an FYI – I’m just a happy customer.
Good luck getting back on your feet (without the crutches) ASAP!
Cheers,
Scott.
(
David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch
Red Carpet: Claire Foy in stunning double breasted pant suit (photo)
Ben Cisco (onboard the Defiant)
Panthers trading touchdowns for field goals is NOT HELPING.
zhena gogolia
@lamh36:
Wow, you make it sound great.
WaterGirl
@lamh36: Interesting about Lifetime vs. Hallmark.
WaterGirl
@raven: Bummer! But at least it kept you in school!!!
zhena gogolia
@WaterGirl:
I was at a party with Mulder once. Before he was Mulder. He was still a grad student. This is my claim to fame.
debbie
@David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch:
Did they ask her WTF is wrong with Hilary Mantel not finishing up the Thomas Cromwell trilogy?
khead
“The Greatest Showman”? What is this crap?
I saw “The Greatest Show on Earth” and there weren’t any songs in between the Cecil. B Demille monologues and Charlton Heston chewing the fake scenery.
zhena gogolia
@debbie:
Is she definitely not going to finish it? I wonder if she just couldn’t face killing Cromwell. I wouldn’t blame her.
zhena gogolia
@khead:
Last night we watched Sorry, Wrong Number. Boy can Stanwyck make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear.
zhena gogolia
We lost our dear cat Louis to cancer on Friday, and now his sister Sasha is back in the hospital. I’m not enjoying this year so far. It sucks.
lamh36
@gene108: Oh…sure it’s not “biographical”, but if/when you use a known name, then you have to take the punches when you mis-represent them.
In this case, PT Barnum was disgusting, and making him be some champion of misfits is NOT at all ok, IMHO
The movie was great other than having that in the background. Also too, I’d hope at least some of the folks make sure to at least educate themselves on PT Barnum’s truth
Comrade Scrutinizer
@zhena gogolia: Mantel says 2019. She denies having problems killing off Cromwell.
debbie
@zhena gogolia:
I’m not seeing anything online about a forthcoming book. I got all worked up last when NPR interviewed Mark Rylance about his current role on Broadway. I got really ticked off thinking about what could have been. They should have dramatized all three books in one production with the same actors. /grumble/
ETA: I am so sorry to read of your sick kitties. :(
Steeplejack
@WaterGirl:
Yeah, I was wondering. WETA (like WGBH in Boston) is big enough that they can commission or buy their own programming, so sometimes things show up in a “national” time slot that is one of their substitutions. And I think we may be in the middle of yet another pledge-drive zone. I’m seeing a lot of “Daniel Amen memory cure,” etc., showing up in the listings.
Anyway, I’m guessing the first two seasons of Janet King are on one of the streaming services, and I recommend it. Season 1 was very tight: King was coming back to the D.A. (equivalent) office after maternity leave (with her lesbian partner!), there was a series of linked murders and possible weirdness in the police force. Good writing, lots of fleshed-out characters, good acting. Most boring title ever, though.
David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch
@zhena gogolia: It’s brutal losing a loved one. We lost our favorite unexpectedly cat a couple years ago. We were depressed. And then 5 months later a stray shows up on our porch and walked into our hearts. Take solace in knowing you gave kitty a good life and one day in the future you’ll do the same with another.
Mnemosyne
@Steeplejack:
G has been doing literacy tutoring at our local library for a few years now and really loves it. His learner has gone from being functionally illiterate to being able to read at an 8th grade level, and keeps improving. She is now hoping to earn her GED, which was a dream that was totally out of her grasp before she could read.
@Another Scott:
I need to have both — I use Google Calendar for alarms and reminders because that’s what we use at work, but I need paper for planning out projects and goals that I then move to Google Calendar if an alarm is needed. It really does help to write things down on paper.
Ben Cisco (onboard the Defiant)
@Steeplejack: I don’t have resolutions as such (made to be broken, yes?), but there are some things that I either want or NEED to do. Last year was one of recovery; now it’s time to live rather than just survive. Professionally, I need to be better prepared for change. For me, this means more tech reading and researching options; personally, reconnecting with friends, old and otherwise.
debbie
@Comrade Scrutinizer:
Bogus that she’s blaming it on “seasons” in publishing. Books have been known to turn around and hit the streets in less than a month.
WaterGirl
@Steeplejack: Just checked, not streaming on netflix. dvd only.
raven
@WaterGirl: Oh no, I got the boot an hit the road. If I hadn’t come back down there from Chicago for the first big anti-war demonstration I would have never met my bride of the time. I spent years tolling at Parkland and graduated from Illinois 9 years later.
lamh36
@zhena gogolia: I really did like it (even with the PT Barnum missrepresentation). And I swear I’ve been listening to the soundtrack the entire time I’ve been searching the net today!
lamh36
YASSSSS!!! Miss Viola Davis looking FLAWLESS in her black dress w/Afro!!!
https://twitter.com/MrFilmkritik/status/950151865861332992
David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch
Red Carpet: Allison Williams blowing everyone away (photo)
Mnemosyne
@Comrade Scrutinizer:
Given the unusual direction she took Cromwell in, I can see it being tricky for her to get Cromwell to the execution block just in terms of plot and character. I’ll be curious to see how she does it.
@zhena gogolia:
I’m sorry about Louis. I hope Sasha has a quick recovery, but it’s tough when our pets become elderly. ?
If you ever see the classic “Celebrity Jeopardy” with Stephen King and David Duchovny, it’s a serious duel between the two of them until Duchovny gets the Final Jeopardy question wrong … about Truman Capote’s most famous work. That must have stung, because Capote was the subject of his unfinished dissertation.
lamh36
@zhena gogolia: I am soooo jelly…I have an irrational efverlasting crush on David Duchovny…since his X-Files days…
WaterGirl
@zhena gogolia: @lamh36: I first saw him in the movie where his wife dies and then he falls for a woman who got her heart in a transplant. I seem to recall noticing that he had a pretty cute butt when he was younger. Glad to know he seemed nice.
lamh36
Hmm… I noticed this too
(For example…Justin Timberlake was wearing a TimesUP button, maybe Ryan Seacrest could have ask JT bout how his last film, ya know where he was working with Woody Allen and if this changes anything for him..)
Wonder if they got a directive to not ask the guys about it?
As many folks have said…
Brachiator
@lamh36:
A friend liked the movie, but thought there were too many songs. She said that cutting a few would have made the good ones stand out more.
Steeplejack
@Mnemosyne:
I need to get my Week-at-a-Glance 70-865 for this year. I am as plugged-in and software-savvy as anyone, but I really, really like that one last connection with the “It’s real because I wrote it down” world—even though my handwriting has atrophied horribly because I never have to write anything more than an occasional signature.
I use it for more than appointments. I note when I saw a friend, what movie we saw, what restaurant we went to, when I talked to someone on the phone, what day I put on pants and went outside, etc. It functions as a “just the facts” journal, and it’s interesting to go back later and look at what was happening—or not—at some given time. It’s a mark of how crazy this last year has been that my 2017 book has very few entries in it. There are whole months with nothing. I just could not get motivated to write anything down.
WaterGirl
@raven: Took you awhile to settle down, but you have made quite a success of yourself.
WaterGirl
@Ben Cisco (onboard the Defiant): You and Imm continue to blow me away with your grace in handling your losses. I hope this is a great year for you.
germy
lamh36
@Brachiator: Ya know as musicals go, I didn’t mind them too much. I mean it’s a musical, not an opera, so at least we don’t have the entire thing sung.
And to be honest, I only really recall 5 “big” complete numbers…and the music was pop-ish so it didn’t bother me as much. But that can def be blamed on the director being a new director…
someone made the suggestion that the movie would make a GREAT Broadway musical, and I think they are right about that.
WaterGirl
@Steeplejack: No kidding on the boring title! I had to go back 3 times before I could remember what to type into Netflix.
lamh36
@WaterGirl: O…M…G…I love RETURN TO ME!! I own it and I literally was describing it to someone a little over a month ago and I STILL love it.
WaterGirl
@zhena gogolia: That was scary and seemed like high drama to me when I was a kid.
Mnemosyne
@Steeplejack:
I also prefer a vertical layout, but I got the much fancier Passion Planner. Since I have specific goals I’m trying to achieve (like revising my novel while starting my second one), I like having the additional structure of the mindmapping areas, the monthly check-ins, etc.
WaterGirl
@lamh36: I love it, too. Saw it again last year and thought it held up well!
David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch
fingers-crossed?
lamh36
IDKY…but I do love Ewan McGregor! I love his accent the most and he’s easy on the eyes…
https://twitter.com/GeeksOfColor/status/950156513770749952
WaterGirl
@Mnemosyne: I googled your Passion Planner, looks interesting. I bet you use all your different colored pens in that, don’t you???
Steeplejack
@p.a.:
That’s a great movie! If you haven’t seen it, The Wedding Banquet, Ang Lee’s previous movie, is also very good. “To satisfy his nagging parents, a gay landlord and a female tenant agree to a marriage of convenience, but his parents arrive to visit and things get out of hand.” Kind of a stupid trailer here, but whatevs.
germy
I didn’t know they made a movie about Chappaquiddick. Bruce Dern plays Joe Kennedy.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qG-c8DtOm9g
Mary G
Sometimes Hollywood activism can seem a little shallow, but lots of the women stars brought real activists as their guests, which is awesome. Too bad Ryan Seacrest won’t let any of them talk.
Ruckus
@Ben Cisco (onboard the Defiant):
This.
We have dramatically different reasons and levels of suckage of course but both need to move forward, it’s the only direction that we have.
Mnemosyne
@WaterGirl:
I do, and I just ordered a pack of 3 more — don’t tell G! ?
I do some mild color-coding with the pens, so I ordered some Frixion eraseable pens so I don’t have to cross things off too often. I have the smaller version of the planner, so I have to get fine-tip (0.5 or 0.3mm) pens so I can write smaller. Permanent things (like birthdays and conferences, things with firm deadlines) are in permanent ink.
Steeplejack
@WaterGirl:
You might check Acorn. Don’t know if it’s a separate service or a channel on Amazon Prime, but that’s where I find a lot of Australian stuff, e.g., Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries, when that first came out and the PBS station here was doling out the episodes at a glacial pace.
Ruckus
@WaterGirl:
Some times having the rough parts is necessary to get the smooth parts right.
Ben Cisco (onboard the Defiant)
@WaterGirl: Thank you for that. @Ruckus: Indeed. There is only forward.
lamh36
@Mary G: Someone pointed out that Michelle Williams had the PERFECT pitch when she was talking to Ryan!
David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch
Red Carpet: Drop dead gorgeous Margot Robbie (photo)
Steeplejack
@WaterGirl:
Went to YouTube and found this (fairly good) Season 1 trailer for Janet King. Full episodes are available there, $1.99 each or presumably less with a “season pass.” Not sure exactly where the money goes, i.e. who is the seller, but I guess you could buy the first episode and see if it grabs you.
WaterGirl
@Steeplejack: Looks like Acorn costs money, even with Prime. I pay for Netflix and I can’t even keep up with that and what I record on Tivo, so I limit myself just to Netflix on principle. I have Amazon Prime, but I don’t like to watch stuff on there because the interface is so clunky. I watch Netflix through Apple TV, but I can’t do that with Amazon Prime. And i will NEVER pay for any of the streaming services for the regular channels – like The Good Wife spinoff that you can only watch if you pay for streaming. Fuck that.
WaterGirl
@Ruckus: I think all the interesting people have had rough parts and unconventional paths.
zhena gogolia
@lamh36:
He was very cute. But believe it or not, there was another grad student we’ll call X, and they looked very much alike, and Duchovny was known as the “less-handsome X.”
zhena gogolia
Thanks, everyone, for kind words about our kittehs. I don’t think I’ve had a chance to realize the loss of Louis since Sasha’s been sick the whole time. It’s brutal.
Brachiator
@lamh36:
There is a good interview with Hugh Jackman about the production background of the film on the BBC Kermode and Mayo film review podcast. The interview might be on YouTube as well. Jackman wanted to do the project for a number of years. I get the impression that the studio, Fox, was adamant that the songs had to be pop flavored. From the Wiki article.
In any event, the movie has found a receptive audience, and a studio with brains might one day turn the talented Jackman loose instead of playing it safe. The same might apply to the other performers in the film as well, who you note, clearly shine with much of the material.
Baud
Whew.
David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch
@Baud: what happened? Cam blow it or did Saints save it?
Baud
@David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch: The Panthers played a smidge worse than the Saints.
Steeplejack
@WaterGirl:
All sorts of calculations that you have to do. I know the routine. I ended up buying the DVD for one Australian series, Mr. and Mrs. Murder, because the lesser PBS station here that specializes in BBC and BBC-adjacent stuff kept moving it around the schedule and I couldn’t keep up. Very dry, witty, “Nick and Nora Charles” series about husband-and-wife crime-scene cleaners who (of course) get involved in the cases. Trailer here.
It seems that you can watch at least some episodes on YouTube, although with weird formatting. You can get a taste, at least.
debbie
@Mnemosyne:
I’ve always color coded. Aside from the organizational help, it’s very pretty to look at.
Carolina Dave
Phooey. Panthers lose. Geaux Saints!
frosty
@Mnemosyne: A colleague got me hooked on Day-Timers in 1981. I use the 2-pg per week version, which is similar to the At-A-Glance calendar. At the moment, I have the Day-Timer, the Outlook calendar where people check my schedule for meetings and I get a 15-minute warning, and my old faithful wall calendar, dating back to my first job, It’s 4 months, printed from Outlook, so I can quickly see what’s coming up and what’s due.
And no, it hasn’t been a real hassle keeping them all synchronized. I’d be lost without the two paper versions. You just can’t SEE it in Outlook. Plus, my to-do lists and stuff to do today are all in the Day-Timer.
JMG
Just washed the dishes after chicken cacciatore with polenta, one of Alice’s best dishes. A Sicilian red wine with it. I am stuffed.
PS: A note on the media reaction to Wolff’s book. As a beat guy (sports) for one paper in a two-newspaper town, it was always, always a rule that if we got scooped on a story, our next day’s story would be an effort to knock the scoop down. Wolff scooped hundreds of reporters, and they are reacting accordingly.
Steeplejack
@mai naem mobile:
I didn’t see Monk when it was first on, but I think I’ve seen them all in reruns, and when I catch one now I am amazed again at how well they made that show not just be a one-note joke about Monk’s OCD. Very funny, very varied episodes. Personal favorites: the citywide garbage strike and the one where Monk realizes that being a persnickety head butler in a mansion is his dream job. But all of them have great moments. And I’m also surprised to realize that I don’t prefer Sharona or Natalie as Monk’s minder: they’re both very good while being very different. That’s good casting and good writing.
Emma
@Steeplejack: if you have read the books, either consider the show an AU or don’t watch. I was never so disappointed in my life.
Steeplejack
@zhena gogolia:
So sorry to hear this. My condolences to you and Mr. Gogol.
Steeplejack
@Emma:
I knew about the books but hadn’t read any, so the TV show was not traumatic for me. It went a little over the top toward the end, but Essie Davis was good and the show was like slightly spicy PBS Agatha Christie. Nothing like the books, I’m sure.
ETA: “Consider the show an AU.” Alternate universe? Or something else?
Emma
@Steeplejack: the thing that drove me nuts is that it looked exactly like I thought it should be. Essie Davis was perfect. So was the actress that played Dot. But the changes to the relationships and the insulting casual racism with the Lin Chung character drove me away.
AU= alternate universe. Spock with a beard, Lin Chung as an europeanized man who marries into a family opium dealers for money.
WaterGirl
@Steeplejack: That looks fun! Is that one on Acorn? Or I wonder if I could get it through the PBS Passport thing? Where you donate to PBS and then get access to their TV stuff.
Steeplejack
@Ben Cisco (onboard the Defiant):
I feel ya. Last year was similar for me. I sort of crash-landed backwards into (mostly) retirement from a varied, not to say checkered, career—no gold watch, no “thanks for your years of service”—and there was a lot of treading water while I came to grips with that and what it all means going forward. Definitely agree that now it’s time to live and not just survive.
WaterGirl
@debbie: @Mnemosyne: Colored pens are happy.
Sab
@lamh36: Yes she did look flawless. Flashy and classy all at once. Also I love her speaking voice.
Steeplejack
@WaterGirl:
I don’t know. I haven’t done the PBS “donate and get access” thing, and I don’t know if that series is on Acorn. I looked it up, saw that it was only one season (bummer!) of 13 episodes and splurged on the DVD for like $15.
. . . Just looked on IMDB, and apparently you can see it through Amazon. Can’t tell if it’s Prime or you have to pay.
WaterGirl
@Steeplejack: Looks like just the one season, as you say, and I can get Acorn free for 7 days. If I timed it right, I could watch all 13 in 7 days. :-)
Steeplejack
@Mnemosyne:
Which edition did you get? It might be overkill for me, but I think it might be a great present for my photographer friend.
WaterGirl
@Steeplejack: I actually ordered one a few minutes ago. :-)
mai naem mobile
@Steeplejack: I loved the Wedding Banquet. I didn’t know it was an Angel Lee movie.
@raven: I thought they already had another season done and shown in the UK. I am going to be disappointed if it’s done.
Mnemosyne
@Steeplejack:
I have the Eco Compact Monday Start with a Lavender Bliss sleeve. If you’re not sure if she’ll like it, I would get the bound black one over the Eco — I like the Eco, but the sleeve can be a little tricky. You’ll need to figure out if she’s a Sunday start or Monday start person, because that’s a big personal preference people have. You can get them undated, but they do a weird thing with all of the months at the front instead of interspersed throughout the year.
Steeplejack
@WaterGirl:
I could definitely see how Mr. and Mrs. Murder wouldn’t be for everybody, even in Australia, but I really liked the slightly off-kilter humor, which is enhanced by the Australian accents. Kind of a light series, but very well done.
The other character who is very good is their college-age niece, who lives with them and has to cope with being the requisite disaffected youth while facing the reality that her aunt and uncle are weirder than she is.
Steeplejack
@WaterGirl:
Perfect snowed-in viewing! Although I guess those days are behind us now.
You know, one thing that pisses me off about all the streaming services is that it is really hard to see what all they have available before you subscribe. Maddening. I have long thought that there should be a website like IMDB—or, hell, do it on IMDB—where you could put in any show and it would tell you where it’s streaming. Maybe such a thing exists already.
Steeplejack
@Mnemosyne:
Thanks for the info. I’ll look at the site and maybe do some subtle interrogation of my friend.
ETA: I spent a huge amount of time browsing on JetPens.com today. I can’t write longhand worth a damn anymore, and I’m left-handed to start with, but I love pens!
Steeplejack
@WaterGirl:
Which one did you get?
Mnemosyne
@Steeplejack:
I am also left-handed, and Uniball pens are the only ones that don’t smear on my hand as I write. I love them. Even the American ones dry fast.
frosty
@Steeplejack: i do the same with the Day-Timer — keep track of where I am and what I’m doing, particularly for vacations and Road Trips. And bike rides, etc. I’ll occasionally go back through them to check on something and it’s nice to have them all handy.
My Mom wrote an autobiography after she retired and she would thumb through it as her vascular dementia came on, to remember who she had been. I’m planning to use these as a resource for the same thing.
Steeplejack
@Mnemosyne:
I’ve gotten to roughly the same place with the Pilot G2 pens. Almost all of what little writing I do is in my version of the hipster PDA that I always carry with me. (I use mini index cards.)
zhena gogolia
@Steeplejack:
Thanks.
Steeplejack
@frosty:
I also keep a journal (somewhat sporadically) with Word on the computer, but I like the terse, tangible quality of the entries in my At-a-Glance book. Very easy, and satisfying, to flip through the pages, see each week on a two-page spread and look up stuff or just get a feel for what was going on. Like you, I note a lot of little things that might not rate a mention in the “deep thoughts” journal. I picked up this habit again a few years ago, and I’m building a collection of books that I’ll be able to refer to later.
This is making me realize all over again how awful 2017 was. That book has huge empty stretches in it. I was so immobilized that I wasn’t writing down the few things that I motivated myself to do. This year has to be better!
Tata
I loved Mr. and Mrs. Murder and was heartbroken that there were only 13 episodes. It was uneven, but witty and interesting, and I wished for so much more for and from those characters.
Steeplejack
@Tata:
You nailed it! It was one of those shows where I thought, “Okay, it’s a bit of an uneven start, but if they get picked up for another season it could really take off.” I didn’t see it in real time, of course; I started out watching it on a second-tier PBS station here in D.C. Really bummed to find out there was only the one season.
ETA: See also Battle Creek and Backstrom on American TV. Thirteen episodes each, 2015. That was a tough viewing season for me.
WaterGirl
@Steeplejack: I got the 2018 Dated Classic Blue Blossom.
edit: and I ordered some colored pens from Amazon because color3ed pens make me happy. :-)
WaterGirl
@Steeplejack: Stupid TV decisions.
Steeplejack
@WaterGirl:
You definitely should check out JetPens. Colored pens galore!
Frances Perkins
Concur with opinions on The Greatest Showman. The best thing about it is that it is really cheerful and uplifting something we sorely need in the Trump era.